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The welfare state is a defining feature of Europe referring to a model of provision where the state accepts a certain amount of responsibility for the guarantee of welfare for its citizens. Currently, there is no European welfare state, but 27 member states that have different social policies, with both similarities and differences among them.

Types of Welfare States:

• The continental welfare state (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria) is characterized by the strategy of “paying off” social problems. The compensatory measures are predominant, together with a high degree of regulation in industry. The welfare state is “the compensator of first resort”, while universalism has been undermined by the “institutionalized full employment promises” and “private labor market practices”. However, the insurance-based unemployment benefits and the generous welfare funds led to the reduction of poverty and a very good health care.
• The Scandinavian welfare state (Sweden, Denmark, Finland), also known as the “Swedish model” stresses the right to work for everyone, the state being the “employer of first resort”. The state is in charge of financing and organizing the social benefits for the citizens and the welfare model is accompanied by both a broad basis of taxation and a high taxation burden. The “Swedish model” also has the advantage of having a more simple organization than the other European countries because most of the welfare tasks are carried out by the state and the local authorities and it is less dependent on individuals, national welfare organizations, families or churches.
• The Anglo-Saxon welfare model (UK, Ireland) is also called the “residual welfare model” and it has a low degree of job protection. It is characterized by selectivity, which translates in easy hiring and firing of employees by companies. Unemployment is kept at a much lower level than in the other member states. However, this social strategy has proven unsuccessful in reducing poverty, as the expenditures on welfare is much lower than those of the other European states (for UK it is 22% of the national budget). There have been cuts in national insurance benefits, the abolition of the link between the state pension and average earnings, incentives to transfer to private pensions, and cuts in entitlements to unemployment and disability benefits.
• The Mediterranean welfare state (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece) is characterized by a “rudimentary welfare state”, with a strong internal polarization in social benefits. Although there is no minimum income scheme in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece, the retirement benefits for the citizens who qualify are the highest in Europe. There is a class of “hyper-protected individuals" (white-collar workers), but also a large number of unprotected individuals (irregular workers, young people and the long-term unemployed). The degree of state activity in the welfare sector is extremely low and not efficient in reducing poverty at the lower end of society.

A New Emerging Welfare State in the EU

With the accession of the new 12 member states (2004 and 2007), we could say that there is another category of welfare state that could be added to the four described above: the post-communist welfare state. This type was characterized by the “transition dilemma”; after the separation from the communist regime the economic performance was lower than expected and the East and South-East European countries needed to find ways to respond to the demand of a better welfare, without compromising the competitiveness of their economies. Although the post-communist countries entered the transition period with a set of welfare policies which were inherited from the old system, their quality was low and encompassed many inequalities. The new member states are now still based on the service system, but they are also caught within the temptation towards the market. In the case of Romania and Bulgaria, the two states preferred to keep the welfare state intact; then they “rolled it back, in order to promote macro-economic efficiency and growth, and later took measures to meet the rising social costs of transition to the market system”.

The process of European integration was accompanied by the attempt of coordinating, to a certain degree, the different welfare systems of the member states. The problem lies in assessing if this attempt was effective and if it actually produced significant changes in the national social policies.

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